3 boys, a handful of careers, lots and lots of pro bono work

Summer’s Sweet End

There was finding our new apartment, vacationing in the Adirondack’s, hernia surgery, more time with all my nieces than I’ve ever had before, a raucous week of VBS at our now old-church, moving on the only truly hot weekend of summer….and then one morning, having stayed that hot weekend of the move at my in-laws, sent my older two off to another week of camp, seen my husband off at work, that I found myself being packed up with three year old in tow, by my mother-in-law, who blog nickname shall be The Laundry Fairy, to drive to our new place.And for some reason, even though I’d been planning it for close to a year – or was it 2? – I was bewildered, terrified and completely unsure of its reality. The moment I crossed the town line – I sobbed and sobbed, with Theo five point harnessed in his seat singing along to the butterfly music (Coldplay.) It was a mixture of sadness, relief, built up tension, plain old body tiredness and strange expectancy that held the thought, “and now what?”

I had been armed by the Laundry Fairy with clean laundry and a swiffer. Theo and I had to make the day work. His brothers would be delivered in the early afternoon & somehow I had to make home out what can only be described as a hallway between various tall & dangerous cardboard box towers. Our heat wave continued through that week. Children slept in all the wrong spots at all the wrong times. I called Sarah, which became the college freshman’s equivalent to a nightly call home. We went to the sprinkler park at Look Park and my children became city children, running off with all & sundry to cool off in the intense heat of late the late afternoons.

On cooler days, I taught my children how to walk places: ice cream with Auntie Tricia, the library, the other ice cream, Thorne’s across the street – if only because we can use their potties! La Veracruzana with Sarah and her kids, because it seemed wrong to have Sarah here and not being eating fish tacos with her, the bakery, all the way the 1.2 miles to school and then again to the bakery. We discussed not scootering straight into the street! Discussed may be the wrong word for that. We got “dehydrenated,” along the way (nice try, Henry) and needed to stop for “cookies so I can get more energy for my scooter.” (even better try). Theo has learned to drink water, for I cannot carry a juice fountain in the back of the stroller. We discussed not stopping suddenly on the sidewalk in front of the stroller, mom, dad, each other, the elderly, people with dogs, and generally anyone. We practiced moving to the side of the sidewalk before slowing down or stopping. We wept from someone else got to press the crosswalk button before us – I may have been weeping for other reasons. It was, in fact, a short course in city life. This is a small city, but busy, loud and full.

Cardboard has subsided to items strewn around the apartment….piles waiting to go upstairs, downstairs, tossed out, free-cycled, recycled, composted, tag-saled. Our garbage, compost and recycling are now picked up by bicyclist. Our street is having a tag sale in the morning and block party in the afternoon. We have gotten through the first day of school and now are hoping the kids behave enough tomorrow for us to, you know, interact with our neighbors and make friends. We’ll see.